The Best '90s Christian Metal Bands

Ranker Music

Updated April 23, 2024 44 items

Ranked By

948 votes

149 voters

Voting Rules

Vote up the best Christian metal bands that were active and releasing albums in the 1990s.

Starting in the 1970s as a type of evangelism to counteract doom metal, Christian metal saw a surge in the '80s that gave it enough power to not get totally lost under genres like grunge in the early '90s. Using that momentum, Christian metal bands began to specialize in extreme metal genres like death metal and gained a foothold in secular outlets by the late 1990s.

Because of this lull, most Christian glam metal act like Styrper broke up by the early and mid-'90s (like most glam metal bands, Christian or not), while other bands like Tourniquet spent the latter half of the 1990s softening their sound to hard rock until returning to thrash metal by the end of the decade. For millennial Christian metalheads, the wide range of Christian metal bands that emerged in the '90s allowed a freedom to explore subculture and identity with their friends who weren't in the church. In a world still reeling from an era of satanic panic, "clean" black metal like Horde went into most headbangers' CD wallets.

We've put together a list of some of the best Christian '90s metal bands, but if we're missing one be sure to add them to the list and vote up the best Christian metal bands of the 1990s.

Most divisive: Empire 21

Over 100 Ranker voters have come together to rank this list of The Best '90s Christian Metal Bands

1
Deliverance
As Above - So Below, Deliverance, What a Joke
62 votes
2
Tourniquet
Psycho Surgery, Pathogenic Ocular Dissonance, Crawl to China
54 votes
3
Bride
Show No Mercy, Snakes in the Playground, Oddities
41 votes
4
Holy Soldier
Encore, Promise Man, Holy Soldier
37 votes
5
Whitecross
Unveiled, Hammer & Nail, Triumphant Return
45 votes
6
Barren Cross
Atomic Arena, State of Control, Rock for the King
43 votes
7
Guardian
Bottle Rocket, Miracle Mile, Buzz
46 votes
8
Stryper
To Hell With the Devil, Soldiers Under Command, Against the Law
56 votes
9
Mortification
Break the Curse, Hammer of God, Scrolls of the Megilloth
48 votes
10
Seventh Angel
Lament for the Weary, The Torment, The Dust of Years
28 votes

11
Bloodgood
Bloodgood / Detonation, Rock in a Hard Place / Out of the Darkness, All Stand Together
42 votes
12
Sacred Warrior
Master's Command, Obsessions, Wicked Generation
37 votes
13
Believer
Dimensions, Extraction From Mortality, Sanity Obscure
20 votes
14
Antestor
The Defeat of Satan, Martyrium, The Forsaken
20 votes
15
Disciple
Scars Remain, Horseshoes & Handgrenades, By God
21 votes
16
Vengeance Rising
Human Sacrifice, Once Dead, Destruction Comes
33 votes
17
Saviour Machine
Legend III:I, Rarities / Revelations, Saviour Machine I
23 votes
18
One Bad Pig
The Quintessential One Bad Pig, Volume 1, Live at Cornerstone 2000
27 votes
19
Shout
In Your Face, Jeg Tror Det Kaldes Kærlighed, It Won't Be Long
21 votes
20
P.O.D.
Brown, Testify, P.O.D.
32 votes

21
Extol
Burial, Extol, Undeceived
34 votes
22
Crimson Thorn
Dissection, Purification, Unearthed
21 votes
23
Horde
Hellig Usvart, Alive in Oslo
13 votes
24
Immortal Souls
Under the Northern Sky, Wintereich, Ice Upon the Night
9 votes
25
Argyle Park
Misguided, Suspension of Disbelief
16 votes
26
Trouble
Manic Frustration, Psalm 9, Run to the Light
16 votes
27
Oficina G3
O Tempo, Humanos, Acústico
9 votes
28
Seventh Avenue
Eternals, Southgate, Between the Worlds
9 votes
29
Balance of Power
When the World Falls Down, Book of Secrets, Heathen Machine
9 votes
30
Innerwish
Inner Strength, Silent Faces, No Turning Back
5 votes

Extol